Clarkson in the, er, manure

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There is nothing not to like about this story.

A group of what Clarkson might call eco-mentalists has visited what the media call his Cotswold home and dumped a little bit of manure on his drive. Which he probably will, genuinely, love, and put on his roses.

This is all relevant to media studies because it relates to the Lifestyle topic. In order to understand why people won’t – by themselves – do anything serious about the environment and consumption of petrochemicals you have to understand the appeal of Clarkson. There are some nice quotes, like this:

[Clarkson’s] views on people standing up for environmental causes have offended a wide cross section of Britain. He once described ramblers as “urban communists”, cyclists as “Lycra Nazis”, and people working for transport pressure group Transport 2000 as “ugly”. Women, ethnic minorities and others have all taken offence…

His attitude to nature is also eccentric. He has questioned why Britain has so many hills, proposed that great white sharks should be eaten to extinction, been excited at the thought of Birmingham being covered by a glacier, rammed a car into a tree and driven up Ben Tongue, a Scottish mountain, in a 4×4.

Clarkson. An equal opportunities serial offender. The comments thread on the Guardian story is, as ever, is well worth a read.